A leftist group on law enforcement’s radar for decades incited a chaotic Monday protest against Turning Point USA at the University of California, Berkeley, that is now under FBI scrutiny.
By Any Means Necessary (BAMN) posted a call to action on social media that encouraged people to demonstrate against TPUSA’s Berkeley event before crowds arrived, scuffles ensued and arrests were made. BAMN, whose allies have repeatedly been arrested at demonstrations or investigated by the FBI, posted footage promoting the screaming mobs at Monday’s protest.
Several protesters were arrested, including one who allegedly tried to steal a President Donald Trump supporter’s chain from around his neck and beat him bloody, Fox News reported. Some arrestees’ names have not yet been publicized.
BAMN, UC Berkeley and the FBI did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s requests for comment. The FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force is looking into the rioting at Berkeley, Attorney General Pam Bondi said on X Tuesday.
The violent backlash came two months after TPUSA founder Charlie Kirk was gunned down at Utah Valley University (UVU) while debating college students.
“All Charlie Kirk and Turning Point stand for is organizing racist, bigoted violence to intimidate and bully us into silence, and we refuse to be silent,” BAMN National Organizer Hoku Jeffrey said in a speech to fellow Berkeley protesters, BAMN’s footage shows. “Today, we have to make sure that we’re loud and we’re proud and that all the Turning Point people that come … know that this is not a campus that they are welcome at.”
TPUSA commentator Jack Posobiec declared on X Monday night that BAMN “must be rolled up by law enforcement” in response to the Berkeley protest.
On The Radar
BAMN claims to be against violence, but its members are often in trouble with the law.
The FBI mentioned BAMN in a 2002 internal document detailing Michigan groups “thought to be involved in terrorist activities” based on its involvement in an Ann Arbor protest. BAMN activists were arrested for alleged violence at protests against Ku Klux Klan leaders in the 1990s in Michigan and California, local newspapers reported.
“Michigan State Police has information that in the past demonstrations by this group have been peaceful,” the FBI document says.
BAMN activist Yvette Felarca was arrested in a violent 2016 melee with neo-Nazis at California’s state capitol building and later convicted of unlawful assembly in exchange for other charges being dismissed, The Associated Press reported. Felarca was filmed punching an opposing protester during the scuffle, CBS News reported.
BAMN described Felarca as a “National Organizer” as of July 2024.
Reports show other arrests of BAMN-affiliated protesters in Michigan and California since 2016. Five were acquitted of assault charges in a high-profile 2018 case after prosecutors said they beat a Trump supporter at a right-wing rally.
The FBI also associated BAMN with “Anarchist Extremism” in a 2017 investigation document, which did not lead to charges.
DOJ officials suggested in X posts that BAMN’s Monday protest is tied to the violent left-wing “Antifa” movement, which the Trump administration recently labeled a domestic terrorist organization.
Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon said on X Tuesday that the Department of Justice (DOJ) would investigate Monday’s anti-TPUSA demonstration over whether the conservative activists’ rights were violated. “In America, we do not allow citizens to be attacked by violent thugs and shrug and turn our backs,” she said. “Been there, done that, not on our watch.”
“Under President Trump’s leadership, and pursuant to his Executive Order designating Antifa as a domestic terrorist organization, the Department of Justice and our law-enforcement partners are dismantling violent networks that seek to intimidate Americans and suppress their free expression and First Amendment rights,” Bondi said.
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